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I had an interesting experience last week when a client was in my office doing a face-to -face 1:1. They had travelled 90 minutes to be with me and they only had 45 minutes of my time. I was on time at the start of the session and they knew that we would be finishing exactly on schedule.

Imagine my surprise then when her phone went off midway through the session…and she answered it!
Turns out it was a customer and the lady concerned felt it was really important that she took that call there and then.

The Power of an Apology
A few weeks ago I received an email from someone saying that they felt that I wronged them with something I did. I was faced with two options, defend my position and dig my heels into the ground or accept the fact that my actions unintentionally offended the other party, take responsibility and apologise for offending them, and right the wrong that I had committed. This is something that we’re all faced with every now and then.

Through our lifetime there have been, and will be many more, instances where our actions unintentionally hurt someone else’s feelings.... Continue Reading &raquo

HMRC's 'My Tax Return Catch Up' Campaign Continues
On July 9th 2013 HM Revenue and Customs launched a new campaign inviting self-assessment taxpayers to take the opportunity to 'Come Clean' on their tax affairs and settle any outstanding tax bills or claim any rebates due if they had failed to complete any or some tax returns in previous tax years.

As part of the campaign, HMRC will be writing directly to the several thousand people it has identified using Connect, the organisation’s intelligence-gathering software, and will follow up with calls to many of them.

Proactive taxpayers can also notify HMRC themselves if they wish to join the campaign... Continue Reading &raquo

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On the Social

What are tax credits?

Don't be fooled by the name: they are little to do with tax. Unlike tax "reliefs", people need not be paying any tax to receive tax "credits". Tax credits are essentially a means of re-distributing income by paying money to a) families raising children and b) working people on low incomes. To their critics, they are a handout. To supporters, vital to relieving poverty.

How much do claimants get?

The average award of tax credit was £6,340 per year. But it can be far more than that.

Child tax credit claimants get £545 per year as a flat payment, plus £2,780 per child .

Then there is working tax credit. Claimants must work at least 16 hours if they are single, 24 hours a week if they are a couple with kids and 30 hours with no children. They get a basic of £2,010 plus extras. In addition, claimants may get up to £210 per week to pay for childcare.

So what's the maximum claimants can get?

It might be far more than their earnings. Take a single parent with three children, working 16 hours on minimum wage of £6.50 an hour. Their wage would be about £5,400 per year.

Child tax credit would be £8,885 a year. The basic working tax credit would be £3,970, including an allowance for being a single parent. But then add in the childcare element. At the maximum this is worth £11,000 a year. A total of £23,855 per year – more than four times what that single parent is earning.

This is why, for a single parent, it pays to find a job working 16 hours a week. But finding a full-time job is another matter. For every additional £1 a single parent earns, they will lose 41p of tax credit. So the incentive to work is there, but there is less of an incentive to work more than 16 hours.

This change was announced in August 2014 and since December 2014 customers calling a 0845 number that has been taken out of service have heard a message providing the new 03 number before the call is ended.

0845 helpline telephone numbers will be decommissioned from 30 June and customers dialling those numbers will hear a dead line tone.

Customers can find our 03 helpline telephone number on our contact us page.

For most customers, an 03 number is cheaper to call than an 0845 number, and it is government and Ofcom policy is to use 03 numbers.